Otsuka Hironori, his development and influences, Part 2.
Founder of Wado karate, a new take on a rich and eventful life.
Part 2:
Bonesetting.
A new business enterprise.
Atemi Waza and Kappo.
How these aspects manifest themselves in Wado karate.
Resuscitation and associated skills.
The same people who can heal you can probably kill you.
The bonesetters.
To set the context.
It sounds a bit odd to us and almost contradictory but if you had an unfortunate accident on a winter street in Japan in the late 1800’s or early 20th century, let’s say you had slipped over on ice and come down hard on your elbow and you had clearly broken a bone; you would seek out treatment from a bonesetter. This expert in his field in all probability would be someone who also specialises in breaking bones; namely, a jujutsu master. Strange as it might sound, that was the way it was.
This was the area that attracted Otsuka Sensei. Potentially, this was his way out of the drudgery of the bank. This was the side hustle that would give him the freedom to do what he wanted to.
In all likelihood, the suggestion may have come to him from his old jujutsu Sensei, Nakayama Tatsusaburo.
This was all happening around the year 1916. Otsuka realised that with the right connections and sponsorship he could gain the necessary certification to set up his own business.
The certification he was looking for was the Jitsugi Shomeisho, this was a document that could be issued by an existing jujutsu master and bonesetter that bypassed the need to take actual exams. Luckily Otsuka was already connected to one of the main players and a man who could open the doorway to his new career, Kanaya Motoo, master of Yoshin Koryu Jujutsu (An older branch of the Yoshin Ryu tradition, forerunner to Otsuka’s home discipline of Shindo Yoshin Ryu). Kanaya was also president of the Tokyo Bonesetters Association. It was fortunate that in his martial arts odyssey, Otsuka was already training at Kanaya’s Dojo.
The next part is a confusing section of Otsuka’s history. It seems that by some convoluted route he did eventually gain his Jitsugi Shomeisho certification, partly through help from Kanaya but also from Nakayama, who Otsuka had reconnected with by returning to train at the Shindo Yoshin Ryu Genbukan Dojo.
It was a hesitant start as Otsuka was not able to open a clinic of his own until around 1921 or 1922. When he did he called the new business Nakura Seikotsuin.
For more details on the ins and outs of the bonesetting world around Otsuka’s time and speculation on his involvement, read this article by Ben Pollock: https://jkfwadokai.org.uk/f/japanese-osteopathy-and-jujutsu
Successful business?
There was a hint that maybe Otsuka’s enterprise was a slow starter and perhaps it kept him afloat while his martial arts career was developing.
Around this time Otsuka discovered Okinawan karate. He was 29 or 30 years old (depending how you measure it) and his martial arts career took a dramatic new turn. Jujutsu training dropped right off the radar for him and he threw his hand in with Okinawan master, Funakoshi Gichin and the whole university karate bandwagon took off in a big way.
This was the launch of his larger martial arts career; a direction befitting the ambitions of the 20th century. From this point onwards his jujutsu training completely disappeared. As far as anyone knows, he did not teach jujutsu as a discrete discipline (bits were incorporated into Wado) neither did he offer anyone qualifications in jujutsu.